today's work

[Das Boot]

Sweet work.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Towards the end of the second world war Germany was desperate to complete and get operational her new breed of fast 'electro-boats', the Type-21 ocean going, and coastal Type-23. Wishing to illustrate how rough-and-ready these boats, being worked up for war patrols, likely to have received sub-standard maintenance and hull preservation – my display had to have the look of a vehicle where looks came in a distant second-place on the list of the Commodore's and crews priorities.



These boats were operated hard and put away wet. Those that survived long enough to gather rust and mung on the hull did so with little effort expended to clean things up. So, my model needed a ton of rust. And nothing looks like rust like... oh, I don't know... RUST!



For this model I first gave everything a nice think gloss clear-coat and then employed the Modern Masters 'rust' system: A primer to hold the iron powder paint, and a acid spray bottle to oxidize the applied iron bearing paint.

This looks like a stinking mess (and at this point it is!) but with all the iron oxidized and belching rust all over the place, it's now up to me to wipe away with various abrasives the excess rust and to do it in such a manner as to suggest how rust will respond to the force of gravity and the geometry of the surfaces it originates at and runs down from.

The sail has only received the primer at this point, but the hull has had both primer and iron paint applied and oxidized. You can see the untouched results.



Applying primer to weld beads, access door and hand-hole edges, base of ladder rungs and railing, limber holes, and other areas where rust will originate and propagate.





Meanwhile I painted the black portions of the KILO, WEBSTER, and BLUEBACK. A very, very dark gray – my stand-in for any model surface that is supposed to represent 'black'.





Removing the masking after laying down the black. This revealed some holidays in the anti-fouling red paint. Some counter-masking and touch-up with the red fixed all that.







As the red-black demarcation line was at the BLUEBACK's waterline I had to mark off and mask the upper rudders demarcation line. Back to the kitchen table-top to mark off the pencil cheat-line to the rudder.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

[QUOTE=Das Boot;n173125]

I'm just about done with the last of my stash of DuPont ChromaColor and ChromaClear automotive paints and clear-coat. They stop producing the stuff a decade ago.

So, I got to the internet and found that an outfit called, 'the Restoration Store' produces equivalent two-part (two-pack, 2K) acrylic urethane (AU, duh!) based color and clear coat systems. About five-hundred bucks later, and D&E Miniatures is back in the game.

And just in time to get some model submarines painted up and ready for this years SubFest at the Red Clay Resort, Cohutta, Georgia. That event going down in less than a month.

I’m sick of your talent. **** you,

No!...

... **** you!

[Das Boot]

[QUOTE=He Who Shall Not Be Named;n173104]I'm just about done with the last of my stash of DuPont ChromaColor and ChromaClear automotive paints and clear-coat. They stop producing the stuff a decade ago.

So, I got to the internet and found that an outfit called, 'the Restoration Store' produces equivalent two-part (two-pack, 2K) acrylic urethane (AU, duh!) based color and clear coat systems. About five-hundred bucks later, and D&E Miniatures is back in the game.

And just in time to get some model submarines painted up and ready for this years SubFest at the Red Clay Resort, Cohutta, Georgia. That event going down in less than a month.

I’m sick of your talent. **** you,

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I've used the same 2K paint from the same tin to do 5 boats over a 12 year period! The hardener tends to get hard after several years and will have to be replaced!

Thanks for the tip. I'll monitor the hardener over time.

David

[vital.spark]

I've used the same 2K paint from the same tin to do 5 boats over a 12 year period! The hardener tends to get hard after several years and will have to be replaced!

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

What’s the shelf life like of these 2k urethanes?

Before I launch into an answer to your question, Andy, I want to publicly express my admiration and appreciation for your years of positive and most constructive inputs within the pages of these forums. It was in fact you who directed us to this (knew to me) source of 2K acrylic urethane base and clear coats. For that, thank you so, so much, my friend.

Shelf life on this stuff if unopened is decades if stored in a cold environment. Pot-life of mixed paint and clear-coat at room temperature is about four-hours.

Andy!... you da man!!!!!

David
Old Dog, New Tricks (if trained properly)

[Subculture]

What’s the shelf life like of these 2k urethanes?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I'm just about done with the last of my stash of DuPont ChromaColor and ChromaClear automotive paints and clear-coat. They stop producing the stuff a decade ago.

So, I got to the internet and found that an outfit called, 'the Restoration Store' produces equivalent two-part (two-pack, 2K) acrylic urethane (AU, duh!) based color and clear coat systems. About five-hundred bucks later, and D&E Miniatures is back in the game.

And just in time to get some model submarines painted up and ready for this years SubFest at the Red Clay Resort, Cohutta, Georgia. That event going down in less than a month.

All you need in the way of paint is black, white, the three primary colors, clear-coat, flattening agent, the appropriate activator/catalyst/hardener, and thinner/solvent/reducer.

With a proper 'color wheel' you can mix any color needed from the blue, yellow and red primaries.





Nowadays the Navy paints its submarines basic black. You don't; we paint our toy submarines a very dark gray, to account for 'scale effect'.

Here I'm preparing the dark, dark gray for black, and a dark 'haze gray' for the Pacific scheme often applied to boats operating during the cold war. Horizontal surfaces black; the vertical surfaces dark gray. This scheme will be applied to the WEBSTER.



Penciling in the black-red demarcation lines prior to masking off the anti-foul red portions of the hulls.











The 1/96 WEBSTER, KILO, and BLUEBACK all masked off and ready for black paint.





Busy applying 'rust' to the Bronco 1/35 Type-23 kit. Hull's done and some of the rust has to be toned down a bit. Still have the sail to dirty up. Trying to get it ready for presentation at an IPMS meeting this Friday.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Were the bow planes a success or failure?

If you stood watches on the planes, they were a roaring success. If you were from the wardroom, they were a noise source and a liability to the boat's survival should things get out of hand. At speed they clanked a bit which not only partially masked our own passive gear but put out a big fat 'kick me hard' sign on our backside for all to hear -- bad ju-ju. As soon as the boat went to Groton for her yard-period the planes were put back on the sail where they belonged.

[Das Boot]

Were the bow planes a success or failure?

[wlambing]

Yes, ALL of the US missile submarines received the "Buick Roadmaster" launchers through various overhaul and Selected Refit Availabilities through the 1970s, into the 1980s. Control panel was located on the Conn for operation by the OOD. HWSNBN- :P

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Did the Lafayette class have external countermeasure launchers?

Just the two 3" signal ejectors. One in the bow compartment (torpedo room, where I was assigned most patrols) and one back in the engine room. The signal-ejectors were used to launch smokes, rockets, bathythermograph bodies, and evasion devices (Alka-Seltzer pucks and adaptive sound repeaters).

[redboat219]

Did the Lafayette class have external countermeasure launchers?

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Excellent clear 'in close' photos as usual David. You answere dmy questio too...'annealed .020” diameter K&S brass wire' 0.20 diameter. .Thank you.

Are any 1/96 hulls of this class still around if I decide ot build a static model and donate to the Vallejo Museum?

Steven

Got my hull from Scale Shipyard three decades ago. Gee... I don't know if Lee is even alive. A very nice kit: good GRP layup and the resin parts were bubble free and of good form.
































David